Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows XP in 24 Hours

By Greg Perry

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • Part I: Wake Up with Windows XP
  • Hour 1. Taking a Bird's-Eye Look at Windows XP
  • Hour 2. Getting Started with Windows XP
  • Hour 3. Managing the Windows XP Interface
  • Part II: Morning Windows Desktop Exploration
  • Hour 4. Working with the My Computer Window
  • Hour 5. Navigating Files with Windows Explorer
  • Hour 6. Calling for Help
  • Hour 7. Improving Your Windows Desktop Experience
  • Part III: Early Afternoon Windows Exploration
  • Hour 8. Installing Programs with Windows XP
  • Hour 9. Finding Files, Folders, and Friends
  • Hour 10. Using the Desktop Accessories
  • Part IV: Late Afternoon Internet Integration
  • Hour 11. Surfing the Web with Internet Explorer
  • Hour 12. Tying Windows into the Web
  • Hour 13. Networking with Windows XP
  • Hour 14. Managing E-mail and Newsgroups with Outlook Express
  • Part V: An Evening with Advanced Windows
  • Hour 15. Exploring Your Hardware Interface
  • Hour 16. Understanding Printing and Fonts
    • Introduction to Spooled Printing
    • Setting Up a Printer
    • The Print Dialog Box
    • Managing Print Jobs
    • Deferred Printing
    • Fonts Have Style
    • Fonts and Typefaces
    • Removing Fonts
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • Hour 17. Using Windows on the Road
  • Hour 18. Giving Windows XP a Tune-Up
  • Hour 19. Managing Your Hard Drives
  • Hour 20. Tinkering with the Advanced System Tools
  • Part VI: Having Fun at Nighttime
  • Hour 21. Using Media Player
  • Hour 22. Picturing Windows XP Graphics
  • Hour 23. Making Movies with Windows XP
  • Hour 24. Advanced Windows XP Tips
  • Part VII: Appendixes
  • Appendix A. Differences Between the Windows Home and Professional Edition
  • Appendix B. Glossary
  • Appendix C. Answers to Quizzes

Setting Up a Printer

If you add a printer to your system, remove a printer from your system, or set up Windows to use a printer for the first time, you'll have to inform Windows. But that's not always a problem because Windows supports Plug and Play as well as gives you the Add Printer Wizard to help you each step of the way.

Turn off your PC before you plug a new printer into your PC's parallel printer port. If you have a USB-based printer, you don't have to do this. After plugging in the printer and Windows XP restarting, Windows XP will often recognize, through Plug and Play, that you've added a new printer and perform one of the following tasks:

• Automatically recognize the printer and install the drivers for you
• Recognize that you've changed the hardware and start the Add Printer Wizard so that you can select the new printer
• Not realize that you added a printer, requiring you to run the Add Printer Wizard yourself

A special Printers and Other Hardware category appears on the Start menu's Control Panel. This category provides information about your computer's printer hardware. If you haven't set up your printer, and Plug and Play failed to install it, you will have to open the Printers and Other Hardware category window and walk through the Add Printer Wizard so that Windows knows exactly which printer to use.

Windows needs to know how to format the printed output that you want. Almost every printer supports different combinations of print functions, and almost every printer requires unique print codes that determine how the printer interprets specific characters and character-formatting options. The Add Printer Wizard configures the necessary details and asks you appropriate questions that determine how printed output eventually appears. The next To Do item shows you how to add a printer.

To Do: Using the Add Printer Wizard

1. Connect your printer to your computer using a printer cable. Most printers connect to the computer's parallel port or USB port.
2. Click the Start button to display the Start menu.

3. Select Control Panel, Printers and Other Hardware, and then click the option labeled, View installed printers or fax printers. The Printers and Faxes window shown in Figure 16.1 opens.

   

   Figure 16.1 The Printers and Faxes window controls the setup and operation of printers and any online faxing software you might have.

   The Printers and Faxes window provides access to all your printer subsystem capabilities. It is from the Printers window that you can manage and rearrange print jobs you've started from Windows applications.

4. Click the link labeled, Add a printer, to start the Add Printer Wizard. If you haven't set up a printer, select the Add Printer icon now. When you select it, you will see the first screen of the Add Printer Wizard shown in Figure 16.2.
   

   Figure 16.2 The Add Printer Wizard walks you through the setup of a new printer.

5. Click the Next command button to start the Add Printer Wizard's operation. Select either the Local printer or the Network printer option. (If you want to set up your computer to print to a printer attached to another PC on your network, select the option labeled Printer Connection before clicking Next.) The wizard will look for a plug-and-play printer and install it if possible. If no plug-and-play printer exists, you'll proceed to the next step.
6. The Add Printer wizard will ask how you connect your printer to your computer. If you use a parallel printer, you'll select the default option, LPT1:. Doing so informs Windows XP that the printer is connected to your PC's printer port.

7. A list of printer manufacturers appears in the left scrolling window. When you choose a manufacturer, such as Epson or HP, that manufacturer's printer models appear in the right scrolling window.

   Over time, printer manufacturers update their printers and offer new models. There is no way that Microsoft can predict what a printer manufacturer will do next. Therefore, you might buy a printer that's made after Windows was written. If so, the printer should come with a disk that you can use to add the printer to Windows. If this is the case, click the Have Disk button and follow the instructions on the screen.

   If your printer is in the list, find your printer's model on the right, highlight the model, and click the Next button.

8. When you see the screen shown in Figure 16.3, you can enter the name you want to use for the printer when selecting among printers within Windows. If you like the default name, don't change it. If you want a different name, such as Joe's Printer (in case you're setting up a network printer that others will use), type the new name. If this is the only printer you are setting up, select Yes when the wizard asks about this being the default printer. (If this is the first printer you've installed, Windows makes it the default printer.) Windows will then use the printer automatically every time you print something. If you are setting up a secondary printer, select No.
   

   Figure 16.3 You must tell Windows how to refer to the printer.

9. Click the Next command button to move to the next wizard screen. If you are going to allow others to use this computer over the network, indicate that you want to share this printer. Click Next.
10. Use the Location and Comment fields that appear to enter a brief description of the printer's location and, optionally, a comment about its use (such as a note telling the users to check the printer's ink weekly). On a large network, such descriptions help ensure that users route printing to the proper printer.
11. If you click Yes on the next wizard screen, Windows will print a test page on the printer. (Be sure that your printer is turned on and that it has paper.) By printing a test page, you ensure that Windows properly recognizes the printer. Click the Finish command button to complete the wizard.
12. After Windows completes the printer setup, a new icon with your printer's name appears in the Printers window.

When running the Add Printer Wizard, you specify which printer Windows should use for the default printer. (The default printer might appear with a check mark next to it in the Printers and Faxes window.) Of course, any time you print documents, you can select a printer that differs from the default printer if you want the output to go to a secondary printer source. You can also change the default printer by right-clicking over the printer you want to set as the default printer and selecting the Set As Default command from the menu.

Share This